Equity Indicator - Kindergarten Readiness
Introduction
This equity indicator, Kindergarten Readiness, examines the extent to which our incoming Kindergarten students are “ready” for kindergarten, as determined by a score of 100 or above on our locally developed “Kindergarten Readiness” screening tool. This screening tool is administered to incoming Kindergarteners in the spring prior to their Kindergarten year. The screening tool is a brief assessment of developmental domains, such as letter and number recognition, shapes, and phonetic awareness.
Research shows a student’s early years in school are critical for the acquisition of key language and numeric concepts, which are the building blocks for future learning, growth, and achievement. We believe any differences in readiness for kindergarten can create hurdles, possibly substantial in number and/or nature, that can very easily compound over the years if not interrupted early. As a result of the critical nature of these early years, we believe any gaps in readiness can shed a very instructive, and urgent, light on how/why there are gaps in other indicators in the older grades. We also believe we must urgently address the disparities we see in our Kindergarten students’ “readiness” immediately upon entering the district to mitigate future disparities in academic achievement.
As the below historical data show, there are substantial, repeating gaps in our students’ kindergarten readiness that are severe and, given the critical nature of this indicator, demand the district’s immediate and full attention. What happens before students enroll in the Wissahickon schools as an incoming kindergarten student is in many ways out of our reach and control, but that does not obviate the need to try to influence a child’s experiences and opportunities while they are between 0-5 years old, so that they come to us in kindergarten as ready to learn and as ready to have a successful year as possible. Otherwise, it stands to reason that the gaps we perceive in the various other indicators we track in later years will be all that much harder to close.
Current Update: November 2023
Action Plan
This plan is under construction.
Equity Indicator - Kindergarten Readiness
In this table and chart, the data are represented as percentages of incoming Kindergartners who scored 100 or above on our district Kindergarten Readiness screening tool. This screening tool is administered to incoming Kindergarteners in the spring prior to their Kindergarten year. The screening tool is a brief assessment of developmental domains, such as letter and number recognition, shapes, and phonetic awareness. To interpret these data, an example is: in the 2015-2016 school year, 42.86% of Hispanic students scored 100 or above on the Kindergarten Readiness screening tool and thereby are ready for kindergarten.
| 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | |
| Asian | 82.81% | 81.63% | 90.00% | 78.38% | 77.55% | 79.55% | 82.22% |
| Black | 69.57% | 60.98% | 44.44% | 69.23% | 80.00% | 52.17% | 44.00% |
| Hispanic | 42.86% | 41.67% | 33.33% | 40.00% | 33.33% | 30.77% | 37.50% |
| Multi-Racial | 62.50% | 79.41% | 60.71% | 77.78% | 68.75% | 76.92% | 50.00% |
| White | 73.22% | 78.31% | 72.61% | 75.16% | 75.47% | 74.55% | 76.65% |
| All Students | 72.24% | 74.81% | 72.01% | 74.90% | 73.51% | 71.88% | 70.68% |
